Stocks Closed Little Changed after Earnings

U.S. stocks closed little changed on Thursday following a mixed bag of earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 15.82 points, or 0.09%, to 18.456.35. The S&P 500 advanced 3.48 points, or 0.16%, to 2,170.06. The Nasdaq Composite rose 15.17 points, or 0.30%, to 5,154.98.

Google parent Alphabet Inc. rode strong advertising demand to a 24% increase in profits, as it continues to capture users and advertisers shifting to mobile. Net profit for Alphabet rose to $4.88 billion, or $7 a share, from $3.93 billion, or $4.93 a share, a year prior.

Amazon just reported its second quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday afternoon.It’s a beat across the board, with Amazon setting another record-high quarterly profit for the third consecutive quarter. It reported Q2 earnings per share (GAAP): $1.78 per share vs. $1.11 per share estimated.

Oracle is trying to add some rocket fuel in the high-stakes race to dominate cloud services – and it’s doing so with a very familiar partner.

Ford announced record net income for the first half of 2016 on Thursday, but the Dearborn-based automaker isn’t expecting that momentum to carry into the third quarter. Thanks to a bounce back in Europe and record pre-tax profits in North America, Ford posted a company record net income of $4.4 billion during the first six months of 2016. However, the second half of that period wasn’t so rosy, with net incline tumbling $190 million to $2 billion during the second quarter.